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  "description": "The shutdown of the Yara Pilbara plant comes as a quarter of global trade in ammonia, used for urea fertiliser and mining explosives, is blocked by war.",
  "path": "/glitch-shuts-australias-biggest-maker-of-v/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-20T23:44:14.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.boilingcold.com.au",
  "tags": [
    "43 per cent of urea shipments",
    "fertiliser plants in India to shut",
    "Alcoa lied about jarrah forest rehabilitation: ad watchdogThe Ad Standards decision has demolished a key plank of the US miner’s expensive campaign to win public support for expanded mining in WA.Boiling ColdPeter Milne",
    "last year imported 1.2 million tonnes"
  ],
  "textContent": "EXCLUSIVE\n\nAustralia's largest ammonia plant will be shut for two months to repair damage caused by a power outage, amidst a global supply crunch for the vital fertiliser and explosives ingredient.\n\nMore than a quarter of the world's traded ammonia flows through the Strait of Hormuz, as do 43 per cent of urea shipments - the fertiliser made from ammonia.\n\nThat flow has been cut to a trickle since the United States and Israel attacked Iran, as have vital gas supplies, causing fertiliser plants in India to shut.\n\nYara's Pilbara plant, which uses gas to produce 850,000 tonnes of ammonia a year, suffered a power outage last week, damaging equipment.\n\nA spokesman for the Norwegian company said workers and the environment were unaffected, and initial assessments indicated repairs could take about two months.\n\n\"Yara well understands the importance of its products to customers and will work to bring the operations back online as soon as practical,\" he said.\n\nAn adjacent plant, half-owned by Australia's Orica, uses 140,000 tonnes of the ammonia to make the explosive technical ammonium nitrate (TAN) for WA's mining sector.\n\nThe remaining ammonia is shipped to Australian and international customers, and much of it is used to make urea fertiliser.\n\nAlcoa lied about jarrah forest rehabilitation: ad watchdogThe Ad Standards decision has demolished a key plank of the US miner’s expensive campaign to win public support for expanded mining in WA.Boiling ColdPeter Milne\n\nOnly a week ago, Yara chief executive Svein Tore Holsether warned of the dangers of a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which would affect the supply of fertiliser.\n\n“If the Strait of Hormuz was closed for a year, it would be catastrophic ... you will see significant reductions in the farm yield,” he said.\n\n“This is a regional conflict with global implications, and it goes straight into the food system.”\n\nThe shutdown in the Pilbara could not have come at a worse time for Australia's farmers, who last year imported 1.2 million tonnes of urea in April and May for use before or shortly after seeding.\n\nThree-quarters came from the Gulf nations, where shipping is now severely curtailed after the United States and Israel attacked Iran.\n\n## Mining relies on explosives\n\nAustralia's largest export could also be affected.\n\nFor the next two months, WA's iron ore miners no longer have 330,000 tonnes a year of TAN produced on their doorstep. The explosive is used in vast quantities to blast rock so it can be collected, crushed and shipped to port.\n\nThe degree of disruption to production, if any, will depend on the stocks of TAN the miners hold and whether they can source other supplies at short notice.\n\nWesfarmers subsidiary CSBP runs WA's second-largest ammonia plant in Kwinana near Perth. CSBP uses Kwinana's 255,000 tonnes a year output and additional imported ammonia to make ammonium nitrate for fertilisers and explosives.\n\nCSBP would not say if any of its imported ammonia came from Yara.\n\n\"It is standard business practice for us to continually monitor and manage our supply chain to ensure we meet customer demand,\" a company spokeswoman said.\n\n**UPDATES**\n\n23 March 2026: comments from Yara chief executive added.",
  "title": "Glitch shuts Australia's biggest maker of vital fertiliser input for two months",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-16T03:14:15.310Z"
}